Day 1 Cimetidine

Took my first dose yesterday, and I think it definitely interacted with some of my other night-time medications, as I seemed to feel extra woozy. Went to bed at a decent hour (for me, 2:30am) but woke up extremely tired at 10am. Went back to bed. Slept past noon, and was still so tired/groggy and it was such a huge battle to get out of bed, I decided to compromise by not going back to sleep, but staying in bed and trying to read. Managed that for a bit, and finally got up after around an hour or so, but already I'm feeling very tired and lusting after my bed...I have something important to do tomorrow, family stuff, so I think I may lay off this particular medication experiment for a couple of days until that's done with and recovered from, and then resume next week at half the dose. (Current dose was 400 mg 2x daily. Perhaps I took the 1st two doses too close together though?)

Re-read and read some more of the posts on the aboutmecfs.org forums (http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?2077-Tagamet-(cimetidine)-for-CFIDS-(worked-for-me)/page6) and saw some people definitely felt like they had a Herxheimer Reaction (healing crisis, dieoff symptoms, etc.) and that some people improved on a very low dose. The book I posted the link to earlier also says that improvement was reported by some people taking only a sliver of Cimetidine, so...

Well, back to bed for a nap, or whatever type of rest may come, because I will have to attempt to tidy up my bedroom, at least, for tomorrow, among other preparations...and besides feeling tired and drowsy, my Circulatory/Dysautonomic problems are rearing their ugly head, and being supine is the only remedy for that.
Which reminds me, my doctor mentioned that it remains to be seen whether those problems are permanent damage to the Autonomic Nervous System, or if they will go away if the virus is successfully treated. I truly hope it's the latter, because if not, I'm not sure there's much point in getting better, because those encompass most of what disables me currently...

Cortisol Testing

I got to see a cardiologist this week. (The GP at my new clinic sent me to him so he could manage the POTS & all that.) Thankfully, he was very sweet; an older gentleman. He listened. He had no answers, but he tried, he listened, he examined, and best of all at least he didn't give me the impression he thought I was a loon. (he didn't tell me what I needed was exercise,like the last one I saw, a suggestion so far off base it drove me to tears...because at the time I could barely stand!)

His only idea was to have my cortisol tested. When the do that test though, it always comes back normal. However, last year, I had the other version, the one where they have you collect saliva a few times over a 24 hour period and compare the measurements to what they should be at those times. Mine was low in the daytime, and high at night, which explains my insomnia and the fact that I feel quite energetic at about 1am...And any little thing stresses me out in thee early afternoon (I don't even get up in the morning anymore! Lucky me? Not really, it kinda sucks!)

Anyways, found this article that describes it & thought I'd share.

http://www.nutritionalmedicine.org.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/franklin?opendocument&part=6

On the bright side, I asked him if I could find a place that did Autonomic Nervous System Function testing, he would give me a referral. :)